Women's track and field post-season outlook

The Atlantic 10 Championships last weekend was the last meet where the entire Massachusetts women's track and field team will compete together.

Next week is the final meet for the Minutewomen where they will travel to Durham, N.H., for the New England Championships. However, most of the team will not participate because next weekend is only for the top athletes in New England who reached a certain benchmark in their events.

For the most part, this weekend will be more about trying to qualify athletes for the women's ECAC Championships May 15-18 or the NCAA East Regional Championships May 30-31. The Maroon and White have already established a solid field for that weekend, but are still hoping to sneak in a few more athletes.

Yesterday I looked at men's New England qualifiers. Here are the women's qualifiers and information on their outlook for the next month.

Note: I am not including any potential participants from the heptathlon because the New England Championships take the top 12 scores from the area and I don't know if anyone reached that point yet. However, none of them are close to qualifying for ECACs.

Alisha Tatham (100-, 200-meter dash)- Tatham has to be the best story for the Massachusetts women's track and field team. She won her first races in the 100- and 200-meter dashes at the UMass Invitational and qualified for ECACs (24.82 seconds) at the Larry Ellis Invitational in Princeton, N.J., in the 200. She had her fastest time in the 100 during the Atlantic 10 Championships (12.15), despite finishing in fifth place. Tatham is .03 seconds from also qualifying for ECACs in the 100, which is very likely to happen next weekend.

Gina Perno (800-meter run)- The freshman had a great first season with the Minutemen, and will likely improve over time, but it is highly unlikely that she qualifies for ECACs. UMass coach Julie LaFreniere will look for her to put some additional points on the board, but this will be her last race in a very successful freshman campaign.

Christina DeRosa (1,500-meter run, 10K)- LaFreniere specifically sent DeRosa to the Stanford Invite on April 5 just to qualify for the NCAA East Regional Championship in the 10K. She had quite a showing (34 minutes, 26.95 seconds) and qualified for ECACs. She is currently a provisional qualifier for Regionals. A month later DeRosa won the 10K in the A-10s (35:40.68). She will likely use these next two weeks to try earning the automatic bid, but it might be a reach to expect her to improve her time by a minute.

DeRosa is not qualified in the 1,500, but that doesn't really matter to LaFreniere. She describes DeRosa as a long distance runner and that's going to be the focus this weekend. LaFreniere might pull her out of the race so she can focus on the 10K as she did during the A-10's.

Shiyi Zan and Christina DeRosa (5K)- DeRosa already qualified for Regionals with her 16:41.49 performance at Larry Ellis. She has nothing more to prove at the New England Championships and might even take this event off as well. If DeRosa does participate in the 5K, it will be only to stay in shape and give the Minutewomen some extra points.

The focus in this race is Zan. LaFreniere said that one of her goals this season was to see Zan qualify for ECACs, and she did just that. The redshirt freshman (17:25.74) already qualified for ECACs in Princeton, and should play a big role this weekend in determining how the Minutewomen fare.

Alexandra Haller and Brittany Bakanowski (400-meter hurdles)- Neither really have a chance at qualifying for ECACs so this will be the last meet of the year for them.

Kristen Bakanowski (pole vault)- Bakanowski is one of the best pole vault athletes in the country so she has already qualified for ECACs and Regionals. She took last week off at the Atlantic 10 to most likely allow sophomore Molly Chapin a shot at qualifying for ECACs. She might have this weekend off as well, but with nobody else available in pole vault, Bakanowski will probably use this weekend as a warm up for Regionals.

Lisa Wilson (shot put, discus, hammer throw)- The sophomore has already qualified for ECACs in the discus and hammer throw despite a nagging back injury. She's under a half-meter away from qualifying in the shot put, which would be quite a feat as a sophomore. She hasn't been able to do it yet, but she is close enough where she could be the only Minutewoman to qualify in three events for ECACs.

UMass women's 4x100-meter team- The 4x100 team was a late qualifier for ECACs with a 45.53 second performance at the New Hampshire Pre-Conference Invitational on April 26. It currently has the second best time in the A-10. This is a talented relay team, but not talented enough to make Regionals. However, they should still make a strong performance in two weeks, given that the track will already be familiar to them.

UMass women's 4x400-meter team- The relay team is very close to qualifying for ECACs. It literally has to improve itself by a second. Doing it next weekend would be a great rebound from its embarrassing performance at the A-10's where the team was disqualified